Mobile Voter Registration

In May, 2010, election officials in Santa Clara County, California became the first in the country to accept voter registration forms that were signed by hand and submitted electronically using mobile, touchscreen technology. This development has the potential to revolutionize voter registration in the United States, where reliance on paper registration processes is costly, error-prone, and time-consuming.

Currently, eight states – Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, kansas, louisiana, Oregon, Utah, and washington – allow voters to register through an online system, with more states poised to do so in the near future. However, each state limits this option to applicants who already have a signature on file with the state. by restricting electronic registration to a subset of eligible voters – those with in-state driver’s licenses or government ID cards – states exclude thousands of otherwise eligible voters from the convenience and reduced error rate of registering online. These restrictions disproportionately affect already underrepresented segments of the populace, including poor, minority, and youth voters.

By making the entire process electronic – including the handwritten signature – we can bring voter registration into the Digital Age.Using any mobile device with a touchscreen, voters could type their information into the voter registration form, sign it by hand, andsubmit it with a click.